Saturday, July 14, 2007

Tatchibana (Marrakech)

After three days of all Moroccan food, we readily accepted our hotel's suggestion for something different - a Japanese restaurant. We were a bit skeptical as to how good Japanese food could be in Marrakech, but we were pleasantly surprised. When you first enter Tatchibana (http://tatchibana.free.fr/indexen.htm), you feel the stark contrast of the serenity within the restaurant with the chaos outside on the streets. The owner of the restaurant is a German guy who spent a number of years in Japan (the chefs are Japanese) and he took great care in designing the restaurant.

We were there for lunch and they had some great set menus that ranged from about $15-20. It came with soup, appetizer, entree, rice, and dessert. The appetizer was a light salad with chopped salmon on top - it was very refreshing and reminded me of Japan. For entree, my mom and I chose sushi while my sister chose chirashi (bowl of rice with sashimi on top). Our sushi came with a bowl of rice as well, and it was made exactly how I remember them in Japan, with thin slices of seaweed, egg, topped with salmon roe. Although the slices of fish on my sushi were quite thin, they were pretty fresh. We ended the meal with some ice cream with meringue. Overall, the meal was probably the most authentic I've had on this trip - more so than any of the Japanese restaurants I went to in Europe. Not only was each dish prepared with great care, but also the entire menu really paid attention to the Japanese concept of seasonality so that everything was very light for the hot summer weather. So if you are ever in Marrakech and find yourself wanting a break from Moroccan food, Tatchibana could be a good choice.